RESIDENTS are up in arms over retrospective plans for a Gypsy Traveller site near Nantwich.

Eight families have moved on to the land, which is off Wettenhall Road at Poole, and a planning application has been submitted for official permission to turn it into a caravan site.

But people living nearby are incensed that the families, each with two caravans, have been able to live there without permission from Cheshire East Council planners.

Numerous objections have been made with residents saying the plans would have a detrimental impact on the ‘uniqueness’ of the area.

Nearby Reaseheath College has also objected to the plans. Principal Mereddyd David said: “We do not consider that any residential developments of this scale and type should be permitted in what is currently undeveloped agricultural land. There is no justification for any retrospective permissions.”

Eddisbury MP Stephen O’Brien said the Conservative party will change a Government policy which states there is an urgent need to accommodate Gypsies and Travellers if elected next month.

He said: “There is a genuine and understandable issue about the justice of retrospective planning applications and the technique used to frustrate local authorities taking action on enforcement notices.

“There is need to treat all people fequally and respect the rights of those who have worked hard to build up their homes and to be active members of their local communities.

“The Conservative party has promised that, if in Government after the election, the targets and pressure that Labour is imposing on local councils to find and provide Traveller sites without the consent of local people will be removed.”

A spokesman for Philip Brown Associates, speaking on behalf of applicant Terrence Loveridge, said: “The development would be set back from public vantage points, where it would be screened from existing hedgerows and trees.

“Having regard for the recent Wybunbury Lane appeal decision, the current application site must be regarded as being reasonably sustainable for a Gypsy site.

“The application would not cause unacceptable harm to the character or appearance of the countryside, and would meet some of the identified need for additional Gypsy sites in East Cheshire.”